Yeshua Prophecy: Paul the Apostle

Is 2017 "The" Year?

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<span style="color: white; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><b style="background-color: purple;">Is 2017 "The" Year?</b></span></h2>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: large;">All true prophecy is from </span><a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yahweh" rel="wikipedia" style="font-size: x-large;" target="_blank" title="Yahweh">Yahweh</a><span style="font-size: large;"> for His glory and the sake of the "elect". Yet, in our day it is common, even among people of faith, to pay little or no regard to any prophecy and to consider one who does pay attention, a conspiracy theorist. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The Word of Yahweh uses Prophets to talk to His people. We find that approximately one third of the Bible is dedicated to these servants of the Almighty, warning us and translating Yahweh's plans. Besides the Bible, there are many nations who have recognized prophets that were not recorded in the biblical Canons, yet delivered Inspired word from the Creator.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: purple; color: white; font-size: large;">A LION HAS ROARED! WHO WILL NOT FEAR? THE LORD YAHWEH HAS SPOKEN! WHO CAN BUT <a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prophecy" rel="wikipedia" target="_blank" title="Prophecy">PROPHESY</a>?” (AMOS 3:6-8).</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">God speaking is not just God talking. When God speaks, what God says comes to be. So, when a prophet speaks a Word of God, he or she is not merely transferring a message. It is a proclamation of a change to come that allows the seed of the change to germinate. It becomes an act of creation. It is an announcement of the future, yes, but rather than merely predicting the future, creates the future. So, we find that Prophets almost Remember the future as if it be done!</span><br>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: large;">While the Magi searched the stars, the other faithful searched the prophetic Word. They found the coming of Christ in Old Testament Sabbatical Law and in Daniel:</span></div>
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Amos 3:7 “Will God do anything unless He reveals it to His servants the prophets?”<br>
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Scripture prophecy the end times quite clearly and we should recognise it:</div>
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While people are saying, “Peace and security,” destruction will come upon them suddenly, like labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. But you, brothers, are not in the darkness so that this day should overtake you like a thief. For you are all sons of the light and sons of the day; we do not belong to the night or to the darkness.… 1 Thessalonians 5:3-5</blockquote>
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Jesus Christ and his apostles quoted from the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Enoch">Book of Enoch</a> (also called 1 Enoch) as authentic scripture. Enoch gave us the way to calculate the year according to Yahweh's Timeline<br>
Yahweh's Calendar according to scripture, explains that the Jubilee Cycle consists of 50 Civil Years.<br>
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And you shall count seven Sabbaths of years for yourself, seven times seven years. And the time of the seven Sabbaths of years shall be to you forty-nine years. ‘You shall then sound a ram’s horn to pass through on the tenth day of the seventh month, on the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yom_Kippur">Day of Atonement</a> cause a ram’s horn to pass through all your land. ‘And you shall set the fiftieth year apart, and proclaim release throughout all the land to all its inhabitants, it is a Jubilee for you. And each of you shall return to his possession, and each of you return to his clan.’ “Leviticus 25;8-10<br>
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Then the LORD said, "My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh; nevertheless, his days shall be one hundred and twenty years. “Genesis 6:3<br>
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120 jubilees amounts to 6,000 years.<br>
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Using The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ussher_chronology">Ussher chronology</a> The Gregorian start date of date of Adam is determined as -4004<br>
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Christ, being born 4000 years later would have been born in -4 (Gregorian)<br>
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Backdating the calendar to Adam in Yahweh's appointed times, we see the earth is 6000 years old this year when the 120th jubilee cycle comes to a close before Yom Kippur 2017 begins in the evening of Friday, September 29).<br>
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1867 (The final emancipation of the Jews in Austria and Hungry), After World War I, the end of rule by the Ottoman Rule created by Turkish tribes (1517-1917) after 400 years.( Egyptian captivity was also 400 years)<br>
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1917 (The 400 yr Ottoman rule ended - Balfour Declaration)We witnessed the re-birth of Israel as a Nation on the eve of Shavuot 1948 from the seed of the Balfour Declaration on November,2 1917,<br>
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On 10 June 1967 war break out between Israel and their neighbours, known as the "6 Day War". During the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six-Day_War">6 Day War</a>, Israel reclaimed more land from Gaza to the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golan_Heights">Golan Heights</a> in upper Israel, a return of land to the inhabitants and a fulfilment of one of the requirements of a Jubilee1967 (The Six Day War - Jerusalem was re-united).<br>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Que. What is significant about Israel becoming a nation in 1948?</span><br>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Ans. It fulfilled such prophecies as Ezekiel 36 and 37 and heralded the soon end of the age. Palestine was a desert land before Israel recently made it "like the garden of Eden."</span><br>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Ezekiel 36:33-35 (ASV) Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: In the day that I cleanse you from all your iniquities, I will cause the cities to be inhabited, and the waste places shall be builded. And the land that was desolate shall be tilled, whereas it was a desolation in the sight of all that passed by. And they shall say, This land that was desolate is become like the garden of Eden; and the waste and desolate and ruined cities are fortified and inhabited.</span><br>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Que. What is the connection between the measuring of the temple in Ezekiel 40 and Israel becoming a nation, aside from there being 1260 years plus 1260 years?</span><br>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Ans. The prophecy of Ezekiel 36 and 37 about the return of Israel to her own land flows naturally into the subject of the rebuilding of the temple in Ezekiel 40. Simply put, Israel is not fully restored until God Himself sits within His temple in Jerusalem. Thus, there needs to be a temple. The temple is the climax of a restored Israel. Note the last verses of Ezekiel 37.</span><br>
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<span style="font-size: small;">There has been some confusion concerning what I believe about when Ezekiel's temple will be rebuilt. I try to clear up that matter on the forum. Click here. In a nutshell, there will be a temple or sanctuary desecrated by antichrist, and then there will also be the temple of Ezekiel built during the Millennium. Why it will be rebuilt is also discussed on the forum!</span><br>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Ezekiel 37:25 And they shall dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob my servant, wherein your fathers dwelt; and they shall dwell therein, they, and their children, and their children's children, for ever: and David my servant shall be their prince for ever.</span><br>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Eze 37:26 Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them; and I will place them, and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore.</span><br>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Eze 37:27-28 My tabernacle also shall be with them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And the nations shall know that I am Jehovah that sanctifieth Israel, when my sanctuary shall be in the midst of them for evermore.</span><br>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Que. Why wasn't Israel restored completed in 1948, including the temple mount?</span><br>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Ans. In Ezekiel's account of the fall of Jerusalem, God's Spirit departs from the temple and leaves Jerusalem in specific stages (beginning 592 BC) and then comes back in stages 19 years later in 573 BC, (Ezek. 8, 40). In the same way, Israel is now being restored in stages --- each stage on a timeframe predicted by the bible. The next stage in God's plan for Jerusalem also happened exactly 19 years after Israel became a nation in 1948: The 1967, Six-Day War.</span><br>
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<span style="font-size: small;">The 1967, Six-Day War</span><br>
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<span style="font-size: small;">The next stage in Israel's restoration was the six-day war waged exactly 19 years later, to the day on the 360 calendar, June 5-10, 1967. In the war, the temple mount was captured along with east Jerusalem. Thus, June 5th, 1967, was also Pentecost on the 360 calendar.</span><br>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Que. But why 19 years later?</span><br>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Ans. Because, from Ezekiel's vision about the temple (573 BC) until when Israel became a nation are 1260 + 1260 years, that is 2520 years. (2520 days represents a seven-year period on the 360 calendar. {360 x 7 = 2520 days.}) Thus, 2520 years, plus 19 more years equals 2539. And so, from 573 BC to 1967 are 2539 years.</span><br>
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<span style="font-size: small;">So, what's important about 2539 years?</span><br>
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<span style="font-size: small;">It happens that seven years on the regular Jewish calendar amounts to 2539 days in both 1948 and 1967. Thus, the seventh anniversary after Israel became a nation occurred exactly 2539 days later on the regular Jewish calendar, (i.e., 1948-1955). And the same is true of the seventh anniversary of the 1967 War, (i.e., 1967-1974). Hence, in God's heavenly schematic, 2539 days correspond to the previous 2539 years back to the prophecy of Ezekiel in 573 BC! (The 1973 Yom Kippur war fits into this scheme too, but to stay focused on 1948 we will not digress.) </span><br>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Thus, in stage one of Jerusalem's restoration, seven years of years on the 360 calendar transpired from Ezekiel's vision of the temple unto when Israel became a nation. Likewise, in the next stage of taking the remainder of Jerusalem, seven-years of years again transpired, except this time on the regular Jewish calendar. </span><br>
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<span style="font-size: small;">And moreover, as said, on the 360 calendar, the day on both of these occasions was "Pentecost"  that is, both in 1948 and 1967 -- when West Jerusalem, and then East Jerusalem, fell into Israel's hands!</span><br>
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<span style="font-size: small;">(There are numerous other reasons why the Six-Day War happened when it did. In part, it has to do with the span of time from when Jerusalem fell to Babylon in 586 BC, and the 1290 of Daniel 12, and the leap month, and the symbolic-day-years. But of these things we cannot digress now! Also note that from 592 BC, when God's Spirit began to leave the temple in stages, unto 1948 are also 2539 years! </span><br>
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<span style="font-size: small;">One final note: On the regular Jewish calendar, the 1967 War began on the anniversary of when Jesus rose up into heaven {Iyar 16}, which was 40 days after His resurrection, Acts 1. However, as said earlier, on the 360 calendar Iyar 16 happened to be the 65th day of the year in 1967, which is Pentecost.</span><br>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Here are the words that Jesus spoke, just before he ascended up to heaven on Iyar 16 --- His last words were to 'wait until Pentecost when the Spirit would be poured out'. And the last question he was answering at the time was, 'When will the kingdom be restored to Israel?' </span><br>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Thus, contained in the last words of Jesus about the restoration of Israel, (and Jerusalem in particular), were hidden two clues as to when it would happen, these two clues were the two anniversary dates of when Israel would begin to be restored in 1948 and 1967.</span><br>
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<span style="font-size: small;">(Act 1:6-8) "They therefore, when they were come together, asked him, saying, Lord, dost thou at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? And he said unto them, It is not for you to know times or seasons, which the Father hath set within His own authority. But ye shall receive power, when the Holy Spirit is come upon you: and ye shall be my witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea and Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth." (For further investigation, calculate the prophecy and timing of Daniel 2.)</span><br>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Interestingly, seven days after Iyar 18, 1967, when Jerusalem was restored, is Pentecost on the regular Jewish calendar.)</span></td></tr>
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Is 2017 "The" Year? All true prophecy is from Yahweh for His glory and the sake of the "elect". Yet, in our...

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The Bible - Stats

25 October Sheeple 0

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The Chosen Ones

29 September Sheeple 0

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<a href="http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Willem_de_Pannemaker_001.jpg" target="_blank"><img alt="God the Father Establishing His Covenant with Noah" class="zemanta-img-configured" src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/16/Willem_de_Pannemaker_001.jpg/350px-Willem_de_Pannemaker_001.jpg" /></a><span class="zemanta-img-attribution">God the Father Establishing His Covenant with Noah (Photo credit: <a href="http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Willem_de_Pannemaker_001.jpg" target="_blank">Wikipedia</a>)</span></div>
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The next few chapters of Genesis trace the spread of the human race and its eventual corruption--within less than 2000 years--to the point that God needed to send a flood to destroy the evil. Again, He did not destroy the entire planet, but, in love and grace, God preserved the eight persons who still trusted in Him. Therefore, Noah and his family were saved (Genesis 6-10).</div>
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After the Flood, God told men to "be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth." (Genesis 9:1) This would require them to gradually migrate in all directions. Those who were migrating East built a city and a tower at Babylon, and established there false religious system in an effort to disobey God and stay together. God confused their languages so they could no longer work together. (Genesis 11)</div>
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Chosen to Share the Truth</div>
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Several hundred years later people had established cultures in many places. There were some who still retained the truth passed down to them by their fathers from the time of Noah, but there were many who had abandoned that truth. God picked out one man, from the city of Ur of the Chaldees, a place where most people no longer believed in Him. He called Abram (later called Abraham) with these words:</div>
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The LORD had said to Abram, "Leave your country, your people and your father's household and go to the land I will show you. "I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you." (Genesis 12:1-2)</div>
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The Covenants</div>
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God does not act whimsically or arbitrarily, but deals with individuals and nations on the basis of great contracts or covenants which He Himself initiates. The very name Yahweh is known as the "covenant name" of God. Yahweh is related to the Hebrew verb "to be" and indicates that God is a living Person who enters into personal relationships with individuals and with groups of individuals. Everything God has done in regards to our salvation is based on one or more of the covenants God has made in the past. None of these has been abrogated or annulled.</div>
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Even before Abraham's time God had made a covenant with Noah on behalf of the whole human race. That covenant was a promise never again to destroy the earth with a flood. (Genesis 9:8-17)</div>
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There are groups of churches today which stress what they call "covenantal theology." We do not disagree with this emphasis on the ways God has chosen to enter into contracts with His peoples. However many of the "covenant churches" would not necessarily agree with our eschatology. The subject of covenants in the Bible is important and complex. The Appendix introduces this subject for the serious student.</div>
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Five principle covenants--all still in effect--apply to the nation of Israel. These include the Abrahamic Covenant (later confirmed to Isaac and Jacob), The Mosaic Covenant, the Covenant of The Land, the Davidic Covenant, and the New Covenant.</div>
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The Purpose of a "Chosen People": Blessing of All Nations</div>
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The Abrahamic Covenant was the promise of a special blessing for Abraham's descendants: a "chosen" people. But it is obviously not for their benefit alone, but that, through them, all people would be blessed!</div>
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The LORD had said to Abram, "Leave your country, your people and your father's household and go to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you." (Genesis 12:3)</div>
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The promised benefit to the whole human race was later revealed as the Messiah - - the Deliverer from the penalty of sin. That is, the promise to Abraham was really the promise of one unique seed, Messiah, in whom all the covenants would find their fulfillment (Galatians 3:16). The theological term "eternal covenant" refers to an agreement within the Godhead, made before the foundation of the world, out of which all the covenants with mankind would later flow.</div>
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The Promised Land</div>
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An important part of the promise to Abraham was that he would be led to a land which God would show him.</div>
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Canaan</div>
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At the time of Abraham's journey, the land was occupied by various Canaanite tribes, and was therefore known as the land of Canaan. Canaan was the son of Ham, and the grandson of Noah. Following the flood, the descendants of Canaan traveled to the area and settled there. Canaan's sons became the heads of what would become the tribes of Canaan. Canaan himself had evidently participated in his father's sin of mocking and gross disrespect when Noah accidentally became drunk, dishonoring his grandfather (Genesis 9:21-26). Canaan manifested the same moral weakness his father had, but to a greater degree. His descendants, resisting God's grace, became more and more decadent and ungodly as their history unfolded. Eventually these idolatrous peoples were to be deprived of their land. (Deuteronomy 7:1-10)</div>
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Israel</div>
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Following a long series of conquests of the Canaanite tribes (See the Book of Joshua), the twelve tribes of Israel finally occupied a large portion of the land originally promised to Abraham. In the days of David the land was renamed "Israel" after the new name God had given the patriarch Jacob, whose twelve sons were the heads of the twelve tribes of Israel. The tribes were united in one great kingdom until after the reign of David's son Solomon. After Solomon died a power struggle ensued, resulting in a division of the people. The northern ten tribes were still called Israel, but the southern two tribes, and the land which they occupied, was called Judea, after the name of the larger of the two tribes, Judah. This is the name from which the words "Jew" and "Jewish" were derived.</div>
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Palestine</div>
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The name "Palestine" is not found in the Bible. It has had a variety of meanings. Nelson's Bible Dictionary tells us how the word was first used:</div>
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"The word itself originally identified the region as "the land of the Philistines," a war-like tribe that inhabited much of the region alongside the Hebrew people. But the older name for Palestine was CANAAN, the term most frequently used in the Old Testament.</div>
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"The term Palestine as a name for the entire land of Canaan, beyond the coastal plains of the Phoenicians, was first used by the fifth century B. C. historian Herodotus. After the Jewish revolt of A. D. 135, the Romans replaced the Latin name Judea with the Latin Palaestina as their name for this province."</div>
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As you can see, the name is actually an insult to the Jewish people, denying the name Israel, which it once had, and going back to the Philistines, their earlier opponents.</div>
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Before the rebirth of the Nation of Israel in 1948, the name Palestine was virtually synonymous with "The Holy Land." Most writers from the time printed books were first introduced until this generation used the term in a non-political sense for the entire region of the Bible lands. Palestine was a well defined area at the end of World War II. The modern nation of Jordan was carved out of the larger portion of Palestine, and the remainder was the area now known once again as the nation of Israel.</div>
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Today the name "Palestine" has a different meaning with highly political connotations. This will be described later in the section on "Modern Israel."</div>
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Conditional Nature of The Promise for the Land</div>
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Covenants can be conditional or unconditional. As it turns out only one of the covenants applicable to Israel is conditional---the right of the Jews to live in the promised land.</div>
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This partly conditional covenant has several elements: (1) dispersion of the Jews was to be a consequence of disobedience. (2) Future repentance will be accomplished by God. (3) God will regather his scattered people and restore them to the land. (4) The people of Israel will be brought to the Lord as a nation. (5) The enemies and oppressors of Israel will be punished. (6) Future national prosperity and preeminence is guaranteed. (See also Deuteronomy. 28, 29.) Because of this covenant, the right of the Jews to live in the land is conditional upon their behavior.</div>
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"See, I have set before you this day life and good, death and evil. If you obey the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you this day, by loving the LORD your God, by walking in his ways, and by keeping his commandments and his statutes and his ordinances, then you shall live and multiply, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land which you are entering to take possession of it. But if your heart turns away, and you will not hear, but are drawn away to worship other gods and serve them, I declare to you this day, that you shall perish; you shall not live long in the land which you are going over the Jordan to enter and possess. I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse; therefore choose life, that you and your descendants may live, loving the LORD your God, obeying his voice, and cleaving to him; for that means life to you and length of days, that you may dwell in the land which the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them." (Deuteronomy 30:15-20)</div>
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The Disobedience and Restoration of Israel</div>
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Disobedience and Discipline</div>
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2 Kings, Chapter 17, documents God's reasons for His temporarily removing the ten Northern tribes from the Land. The Lord indicates that the approaching 70 year Babylonian captivity would allow the Land to enjoy its seventh-year Sabbath rests which had been ignored by the Jews since their entry into the land under the leadership of Joshua.</div>
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Moses had given Israel this warning about what would happen if they forsook the Lord:</div>
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I will scatter you among the nations and will draw out my sword and pursue you. Your land will be laid waste, and your cities will lie in ruins. Then the land will enjoy its sabbath years all the time that it lies desolate and you are in the country of your enemies; then the land will rest and enjoy its Sabbaths. All the time that it lies desolate, the land will have the rest it did not have during the Sabbaths you lived in it. (Leviticus 26:33-35)</div>
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Second Chronicles records the result of their disobedience:</div>
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He carried into exile to Babylon the remnant, who escaped from the sword, and they became servants to him and his sons until the kingdom of Persia came to power. The land enjoyed its sabbath rests; all the time of its desolation it rested, until the seventy years were completed in fulfillment of the word of the LORD spoken by Jeremiah. (2 Chronicles 36:20-21)</div>
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Repentance</div>
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Daniel, who had been among the young men taken captive to Babylon, expressed the repentance that the exiles felt after years of captivity. He had lived out a long and useful life in Babylon serving a succession of governments and administrations, but as an old man he realized the time of the captivity there was about to end when he happened to be reading the scroll of his immediate predecessor Jeremiah:</div>
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In the first year of Darius son of Xerxes (a Mede by descent), who was made ruler over the Babylonian kingdom--in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, understood from the Scriptures, according to the word of the LORD given to Jeremiah the prophet, that the desolation of Jerusalem would last seventy years. So I turned to the Lord God and pleaded with him in prayer and petition, in fasting, and in sackcloth and ashes. I prayed to the LORD my God and confessed: "O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love with all who love him and obey his commands, we have sinned and done wrong. We have been wicked and have rebelled; we have turned away from your commands and laws. We have not listened to your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings, our princes and our fathers, and to all the people of the land. "Lord, you are righteous, but this day we are covered with shame--the men of Judah and people of Jerusalem and all Israel, both near and far, in all the countries where you have scattered us because of our unfaithfulness to you. O LORD, we and our kings, our princes and our fathers are covered with shame because we have sinned against you." (Daniel 9:1-8) (See also Daniel 9:15-19)</div>
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Rebuilding - Ezra, Nehemiah</div>
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The books of Ezra and Nehemiah describe the leadership of Zerubbabel and Nehemiah, who led small numbers of Jews back to the Land at the end of the appointed 70 years in Babylon. A modest Second Temple was constructed and the city walls were rebuilt in answer to Daniel's prayer of intercession (Daniel 9:1-19). The land from that time until now was under Gentile dominion, however. Yeshua would later affirm that Israel's subservience to Gentile powers would continue until He returned, (Luke 21:24). This did not change in 1948 when Israel achieved national independence--Jerusalem is to be overrun and destroyed by foreign armies at least one more time. (Zechariah 14:1-3)</div>
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Coming of The Messiah</div>
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The Gospel of Matthew was written primarily for Jewish readers. It constantly refers to the Messianic prophecies fulfilled by Yeshua (Jesus) as the rightful King of the Jews. Among these striking fulfillments, Matthew cited Yeshua's virgin birth (1:22-23), the place of His birth in Bethlehem (2:5-6), the flight of His parents to Egypt to spare him from Herod's slaughter of children (2:14-15), His boyhood years in Nazareth (2:23), the beginnings of His public ministry in the area of Galilee (4:13-16), His miraculous healing ministry (8:14-17; 12:17-21), His rejection by non-believers (13:13-15), His entrance into Jerusalem on a donkey (21:1-5), His surrender to His enemies (26:54-56), and His betrayal for thirty pieces of silver (27:3-10).</div>
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His agony in the garden, illegal trial in the middle of the night, crucifixion, burial and resurrection are vividly described (26-28). The other three gospels give complementary details.</div>
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Fulfillment of Prophecy</div>
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A comparison of all the Gospels with the Old Testament record results in over sixty different prophecies fulfilled in Yeshua's birth, life and death. The odds against any person coincidentally fulfilling these prophecies is astronomical! It was this fact that convinced His followers that He truly was the long-awaited Messiah. Here are some examples of this fact:</div>
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The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, "We have found the Messiah" (that is, the Christ)</div>
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Philip found Nathaniel and told him, "We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote--Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph." (John 1:41, 45)</div>
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When Jesus spoke with the Samaritan woman at the well, He revealed to her that He was Messiah.</div>
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The woman said, "I know that Messiah" (called Christ) "is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us." Then Jesus declared, "I who speak to you am he."</div>
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Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, "Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ?" (John 4:25-26, 28-29)</div>
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The Believing Minority - Apostles and Early Christians</div>
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It should always be remembered that the entire first church was Jewish. All of the Twelve Apostles were Jewish. Their first assignment was to preach to "the lost sheep of Israel." (Matthew 10:6) Yeshua was reluctant at first to even share the Gospel with the Canaanite woman who asked for His help because His focus was also the Jewish people. (Matthew 25:22-28).</div>
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As the nation began to reject their promised King and Messiah (Matthew 12:14-21), Jesus began to conceal truth from the nation, by speaking in parables (Matthew 13). He focused on training. His disciples for the age which would follow, and on His primary mission of arriving in Jerusalem at the time appointed for His crucifixion. God's plan for ultimate blessings promised to the Gentiles came more into view.</div>
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On the night of His betrayal at the "Last Supper"--after Judas had left to finalize his plot to betray the Lord--Jesus brought the 11 disciples, as representatives of true, believing Israel into the "New Covenant" which had been promised to Israel hundreds of years earlier by the prophets Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Isaiah. This New Covenant was to be the basis of the spread of the gospel message of Jesus by these same men, after they were made Apostles of the church. The nation Israel was to be brought back to God under the terms of this New Covenant, though for a period of time they were to be set aside because of their rejection of Yeshua as Messiah.</div>
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Yeshua's official rejection of Israel and His plan for the calling out of a church was announced at Caesarea Philippi (Matthew 16:17-19). A few months later, during His final week in Jerusalem, He announced to the nation and its leaders</div>
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"The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone; the Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes' Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you [Israel] and given to a people [the church] who will produce its fruit. He who falls on this stone [Messiah] will be broken to pieces, but he on whom it falls will be crushed." (Matthew 21:42-44)</div>
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Yeshua wept over Jerusalem as He realized the terrible fate that would come upon the nation because of their rejection of Him. For the second time the conditional provisions of the Covenant of the Land were to be enforced. This time their exile ("Diaspora") was to last not 70 years but 2000!</div>
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O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing. Look, your house is left to you desolate. For I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord." (Matthew 23:37-39</div>
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The resurrection of Jesus and His appearances to friends and disciples over the next 40 days, reassured them considerably--for they had all forsaken Him when He died (Matthew 26:31). Promising to send them "Another Strengthener" (John 14:1516), He told His followers to wait ten more days.</div>
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Gathering in Jerusalem on the appointed day--the Feast of Pentecost following Passover--the Jewish followers of Yeshua were empowered by the Spirit of God and baptized into a new community of believers known as the church--the Body of Christ. (Ephesians 3:1-21)</div>
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All of those who first heard the Gospel on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2) were Jewish (including converts and those dispersed to other countries).</div>
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It was only after the persecution of the early church by the Jewish enemies of Yeshua in Jerusalem that they were scattered from there, and began to take the message to the rest of Judea and Samaria, and eventually, to Gentiles living in Israel, and even to other Nations (Acts 8:1; 10:1-48; 13:1-4).</div>
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Even when Paul, the "Apostle to The Gentiles" would go to any new place, he would first seek out the Jewish people and proclaim the Gospel to them. (Acts 13:5; 14; 14:1-5; 17:1-5; 18:1-6) Typically, some of the Jews would believe and the rest would not. Only then would he began to preach to the Gentiles. Here is an example from the visit to Antioch in Pisidia:</div>
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As Paul and Barnabas were leaving the synagogue, the people invited them to speak further about these things on the next Sabbath. When the congregation was dismissed, many of the Jews and devout converts to Judaism followed Paul and Barnabas, who talked with them and urged them to continue in the grace of God. On the next Sabbath almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord. When the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy and talked abusively against what Paul was saying. Then Paul and Barnabas answered them boldly: "We had to speak the word of God to you first. Since you reject it and do not consider yourselves worthy of eternal life, we now turn to the Gentiles. For this is what the Lord has commanded us: "'I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.'" When the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and honored the word of the Lord; and all who were appointed for eternal life believed. (Acts 13:42-48)</div>
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Paul summarized his God-given method in Romans 1:16 where he stated, "I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile."</div>
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Israel's Unbelief</div>
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Rejection of Messiah</div>
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The second violation of the conditional provisions of the Covenant Of The Land occurred when Israel as a nation rejected her rightful Messiah, Yeshua, when He came riding into Jerusalem on a donkey as legitimate King of Israel (exactly fulfilling Zechariah 9:9)</div>
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As he [Jesus] was now drawing near, at the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen, saying, "Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!" And some of the Pharisees in the multitude said to him, "Teacher, rebuke your disciples." He answered, "I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out." And when he drew near and saw the city he wept over it, saying, "Would that even today you knew the things that make for peace! But now they are hid from your eyes. For the days shall come upon you, when your enemies will cast up a bank about you and surround you, and hem you in on every side, and dash you to the ground, you and your children within you, and they will not leave one stone upon another in you; because you did not know the time of your visitation." (Luke 19:37-44)</div>
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One might have thought that during the 400 years following the close of the Old Testament (after the book of Malachi was written) the nation would have learned its lessons from history and been ready for the coming of the Promised One. But the priesthood had become thoroughly corrupt and the bulk of the populace wanted relief from Roman Oppression--not release from inner evil, sin and spiritual death. Messiah's rejection as rightful King in the line of David was followed within a few days by His betrayal and execution. When Jesus stood before Pontius Pilate the assembled crowd of Jews was given an opportunity to free Jesus who was by all counts completely innocent, or to release a known criminal. In the ensuing clamor the people asked instead for the release of Barabbas,</div>
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Now at the feast the governor was accustomed to release for the crowd any one prisoner whom they wanted. And they had then a notorious prisoner, called Barabbas. So when they had gathered, Pilate said to them, "Whom do you want me to release for you, Barabbas or Jesus who is called Christ?" For he knew that it was out of envy that they had delivered him up. Besides, while he was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent word to him, "Have nothing to do with that righteous man, for I have suffered much over him today in a dream." Now the chief priests and the elders persuaded the people to ask for Barabbas and destroy Jesus. The governor again said to them, "Which of the two do you want me to release for you?" And they said, "Barabbas." Pilate said to them, "Then what shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ?" They all said, "Let him be crucified." And he said, "Why, what evil has he done?" But they shouted all the more, "Let him be crucified." So when Pilate saw that he was gaining nothing, but rather that a riot was beginning, he took water and washed his hands before the crowd, saying, "I am innocent of this man's blood; see to it yourselves." And all the people answered, "His blood be on us and on our children!" (Matthew 27:15-25)</div>
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It is wrong for us to label Jews as "Christ-killers" because quite clearly all mankind is involved in the conspiracy which put Jesus to death. Representatives of each of the sons of Noah: Shem, Ham, and Japheth had a responsible role in putting Messiah to death. Had the Son of God been born in any other country, in any other time, the results would have been the same. Yet the leaders of the Jews standing before Pilate in that generation were willing to assume responsibility for the blood of Jesus, "Let his blood be upon us." God will evidently require this of the nation in the final days of the coming tribulation.</div>
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The resurrection of Jesus three days after his death, and the sudden and dramatic formation of the church of Jesus Christ in Jerusalem on the Day of Pentecost (50 days after the resurrection) did not turn the heart of the nation to their Messiah. It was only a matter of time until the Jewish followers of Jesus, some thousands in number, were forced to flee Jerusalem. Soon the unbelieving Jews, in their continuing revolt against Rome, provoked the Romans to remove them from the land. As a consequence, the provisional terms of the Covenant Of The Land were invoked for the second time by the Owner of the Land.</div>
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After this second dispersion, lasting nearly 2000 years, God allowed His chosen people to return to their land again. The exciting history of the regathering of the Jews from all lands began a hundred years ago---culminating in the rebirth of the State of Israel in 1948 and the tiny nation's rise to power and a restored place of great power and influence as a modern progressive democracy. Thankfully, God is faithful to His promises in spite our unbelief!</div>
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The drama of the Jewish people during their Diaspora is little known to most Christians. It is fascinating reading because it soon becomes clear that God has in fact protected the Jewish people, their religion, values and culture against the great pressures to assimilate, against almost constant terrible anti-Semitism, against horrendous persecution down through the ages. The very existence of the Jews today, the recovery of their language, their regathering to the land of their fathers, and the clear signs of their Messianic expectations, are surely among the greatest miracles one can find on the pages of human history.</div>
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Hardening and blindness - Romans 11</div>
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In the early years when God had moved to call out a church to His name, and because the majority of Jewish people did not accept Yeshua as Messiah, the Apostle Paul explained that they had become spiritually blind. The same thing happens to any people anywhere in any age who hear truth from God and ignore it. The Jews are representative--not unique--in their demonstration of all of mankind's rebellion against God down through the ages.</div>
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I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers, so that you may not be conceited: Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in. (Romans 11:25)</div>
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One might ask if the past hundred years of great economic development, prosperity, and overwhelming military victories against enormous odds, has brought the Jews to a place of contrition and repentance and humility as far as their God is concerned---especially since the restoration of the State of Israel was born out of terrible persecution and hardship?</div>
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It is quite true that many thousands of Jews from all over the world have become believers in Yeshua over the past 2000 years, and these have been added to the church (see Ephesians 2:11-3:12 for God's purposes in this present age). It is also true that there is a small remnant of some thousands of believing Jews now resident in the Land of Israel (Romans 11:5). Yet for the most part Israel is a secular state. Most of her citizens are not only indifferent to the God of their Fathers, but openly hostile to any notions that the God of the Land is anything more than an interesting mythological character now outgrown and to be discarded.</div>
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People who live in Israel can not help but be reminded of their past because the Sabbath is observed, and the major Biblical feasts are kept by many. Furthermore, archaeology is the national pastime, so there are reminders of early history in the news every day. At the present time about half of the Jews living in the land are "Sabras"--that is, they were born in the land and not immigrants. This younger generation is especially involved in a quest for their roots and identity, and from among the young men of this generation, well over 100,000 are already diligently studying the Torah in the many yeshivas of the land.</div>
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Although God is known for his great patience and long-suffering, it is appropriate to ask how much longer the Holy God of the Covenants will tolerate the present indifference, rebellion and disregard for His Person which typifies the Israel of the past hundred years? Of course we can not speak much more favorably about the disregard for God in our own country these days, especially since most Americans have already heard the truth about God, but never taken it seriously.</div>
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Sadly, we have further indications from the New Testament that tell us that not only will Israel continue in its denial of Yeshua as Messiah--they will in fact readily embrace a counterfeit Messiah. Jesus warned His people when he was with them,</div>
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You search the scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness to me; yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life. I do not receive glory from men. But I know that you have not the love of God within you. I have come in my Father's name, and you do not receive me; if another comes in his own name, him you will receive. How can you believe, who receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God? (John 5:39-44)</div>
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Israel is God's model nation, yet in spite of the fact that Israel's history of repeated failure is on public display in the Bible for all to read, God has neither abandoned nor rejected His chosen people. When all the final scores are in concerning all the nations and their animosity and hatred of the one true God, no one will have any cause for boasting. In fact God will judge all the other nations of the world by how they have treated the Jews (Joel 3).</div>
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One hundred years of God's grace, kindness, mercy and favor have not turned the nation of Israel towards faith in their God. Nor are they any closer to accepting their true Messiah. Will then God banish the Jews from the land again, perhaps this time permanently?</div>
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The answer from Scripture is clear. Israel's final testing will occur in their land and involve the destruction of a majority of the populace, a time of trial compared to which the Nazi holocaust will pale in insignificance.</div>
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Modern Israel</div>
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Ezekiel, chapters 36 and 37 plainly predicted that the Chosen People would one day be regathered from the various nations of the world, back to their own land, Israel. The Prophet saw a vision of a valley full of dry bones, shaking and coming back together. Once the skeleton was formed, muscles appeared, then skin covered the reconstructed body which is symbolic of the rebirth of Israel.</div>
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The hand of the LORD was upon me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the LORD and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. He asked me, "Son of man, can these bones live?" I said, "O Sovereign LORD, you alone know." Then he said to me, "Prophesy to these bones and say to them, 'Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD! This is what the Sovereign LORD says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the LORD.'" So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them. (Ezekiel 37:1-8)</div>
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The modern nation of Israel came into existence on May 14, 1948 when the British, who had occupied the area of Palestine since the end of World War II withdrew their forces and ended their occupation of the land.</div>
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This was not a surprise, since Jewish people had flocked to the land for decades as part of the Zionist movement, begun in the late 1800's. At the end of World War I the British issued the "Balfour Declaration" which endorsed the establishment of "a national home" for the Jewish people in Palestine During World War II the Nazis killed 6 million Jewish people, (approximately one-third of all Jews living at the time). Because of this, world opinion was in favor of the establishment of a homeland for Jews.</div>
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However, all of the nations immediately surrounding the little sliver of land were opposed to the formation of a Jewish state, so, on the very first day of Israel's independence, all of Israel's neighbors declared war against them. Israel miraculously won that war--and four more which have been waged against them during their first fifty years of existence.</div>
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The Arab population of the land, who were mostly Moslems, were invited to stay when Israel became a nation. They were offered citizenship if they would stay. Many of them accepted the offer, but the majority fled into buffer areas just inside the borders of Lebanon, Syria and Jordan, where they formed Palestinian refugee camps. The neighboring countries would not assimilate them, preferring to use their plight as homeless refugees for political advantage.</div>
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Today "Palestinians" are the residents of certain areas of Israel designated by the Oslo Accords of 1963 as areas for self-rule of Palestinian people under the leadership of Yassir Arafat and the PLO (Palestinian Liberation Organization). There is a great deal of unrest, and occasional terrorist activity, between the residents of these areas and the rest of Israel, all of which threatens to destroy the progress of the "peace process" in the area.</div>
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The Nation of Israel has been brought back together as promised in Ezekiel: the skeleton, the muscles, and the skin are in place, but there is still one part of the prophecy which awaits fulfillment. That is the spiritual rebirth of the people. This is symbolized by God breathing life into Israel, even as He did into Adam when he was created.</div>
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Then he said to me, "Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe into these slain, that they may live.'"</div>
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So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet--a vast army. Then he said to me: "Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say, 'Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.' Therefore prophesy and say to them: 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: O my people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel. Then you, my people, will know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the LORD have spoken, and I have done it, declares the LORD.'" (Ezekiel 37:9-14)</div>
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Israel has moved back into their ancient lands without any special regard for the God of their Fathers, who was doing this for them. The treatment of the immigrating Jews towards the Arabs living in the land was often harsh and unfair. This is surely because they had returned in a general state of unbelief. They had forgotten for the moment the Law of Moses, and God's standards for treatment of strangers and aliens living in God's land. Much of the rebellion by the Palestinian people against the Jews is based on legitimate complaints, and God, of course, can not overlook this in the long run. He has no favorites and is even-handed in His judgments of all people.</div>
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Israel's Glorious Future</div>
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As mentioned earlier, God's ultimate intention for the nation Israel is that they should one day live under the more powerful, more effectual conditions of the New Covenant which is the covenant which is now in effect in the world-wide church of Jesus Christ,</div>
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This is pictured in Ezekiel 36 this way:</div>
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"'For I will take you out of the nations; I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws." (Ezekiel 36:24-27)</div>
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It is after the church is completed that God will turn again to Israel as a nation and focus His activities once again from His unseen headquarters in Jerusalem.</div>
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Peter has related how God first visited the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for his name. And with this the words of the prophets agree, as it is written, `After this I will return, and I will rebuild the dwelling of David, which has fallen; I will rebuild its ruins, and I will set it up, that the rest of men may seek the Lord, and all the Gentiles who are called by my name, says the Lord, who has made these things known from of old.' (Acts 15:14-18)--The quote is from Amos 9:11-12).</div>
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In his great discourse on Israel's future the Apostle Paul assures us,</div>
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Lest you [believing Gentiles] be wise in your own conceits, I want you to understand this mystery, brethren: a hardening has come upon part of Israel, until the full number of the Gentiles come in [to the church], and so [or, "then"] all Israel will be saved; as it is written, "The Deliverer will come from Zion, he will banish ungodliness from Jacob"; "and this will be my covenant with them when I take away their sins." As regards the gospel they are enemies of God, for your sake; but as regards election they are beloved for the sake of their forefathers. For the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable. Just as you were once disobedient to God but now have received mercy because of their disobedience, so they have now been disobedient in order that by the mercy shown to you they also may receive mercy. (Romans 11:25-32)</div>
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The Old Testament books of prophecy are full of promises of the future blessing of Israel. This will be developed later in the last section on the Millennial Reign of Christ and beyond.</div>
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